Emergency grain regulations to be extended one year: Garneau

As Canadian grain farmers start seeding, Transport Minister Marc Garneau says he will ask Parliament to extend expiring emergency grain shipping regulations by one year to ensure this year’s harvest gets to market.

The Fair Rail for Grain Farmers Act, introduced at the height of the 2013-2014 grain crisis which left millions of tonnes of prairie grain stranded across Western Canada, was set to expire August 1.

Canadian grain farmers and shippers had been lobbying the government for months to extend the regulations while the federal government works towards finding long-term solutions to the country’s shipping woes.